The New Forest

Wild ponies drift between oak and beech on open heathland where Norman hunting laws still technically apply and the forest floor has never met a plough. The New Forest is one of the largest tracts of unenclosed pasture left in lowland Britain — ancient, grazed, and quietly governed by customs older than Parliament.

William the Conqueror declared this royal hunting ground in 1079, and commoners' rights — to graze ponies, cattle and pigs, to gather wood, to cut turf — have been exercised ever since, still administered by the Verderers' Court, among the oldest courts in England. The National Park's 571 square kilometres run from ancient woodland and open heath to river valleys and a Solent shoreline, with thousands of New Forest ponies roaming free alongside cattle, donkeys and — in autumn pannage season — pigs loosed to hoover the acorns. The ancient and ornamental woods hold trees over four centuries old, grazed all the while, and cycling tracks cross bog, heath and grove without meeting a major road. Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst and Burley make the bases; the animals always have right of way, and the forest's code asks you to keep your distance from creatures that feel tame and aren't.